Guild Wars 2

Okay ive been using gs and lb mainly, and i was thinking of switching to sword dagger maybe. What are the advatages to using sword dagger, and what are the advantages to using gs?? pls help!!

Sword dagger is great for evading and keeping poison on your opponent, perfect for fighting bunkers.

GS is better for chasing people down, the block is extremely handy against other ranged profession, and you get a nice burst from maul.

The other differences is GS will cleave and sword will stick you to the target. Depending on the situation both can work for you or against you.

In terms of raw damage, sword does more DPS against single targets. GS does more DPS against 2+ targets.

Overall I think GS is a much more rounded weapon. It’s got a good mix of utility, and its single target DPS is not that far behind sword’s. – you just have to spam skills other than autoattack. Which is the way it should be – weapons whose highest DPS is from the autoattack make for a very boring game, and ranger got saddled with a bunch of them (sword, shortbow, axe, longbow before RF buff).

But the evades on sword tend to be more important in PvP. And the flexibility of being able to choose your off-hand weapon depending on circumstances is nice. It’s just the mechanics of the leaps with sword autoattack which hold the weapon back. Anet needs to significantly overhaul sword’s mechanics (fix bugs, special-case it so its autoattack shuts off if you dodge/evade so you don’t end up leaping back into danger on the next autoattack). Until they do that, sword involves a lot of busywork and micromanaging on the part of the player. It’s probably the hardest weapon to use well in the game right now.

Sword/Dagger: High AA DPS/Extra evade.
Sword/Horn: High AA DPS/Blast finisher, Fury, only reliable source of swiftness.
Sword/Axe: High AA DPS/Reflection, pull.
Greatsword: AA Dodge, Cleave, Mobility, Burst, Leap, Block, Interrupt.

Those are the main advantages to each of the melee options, that we have.
You should disable AA for both GS and Sword, to maximize their effectiveness and not spam “1” all the time.
For GS, if you know, that your enemy will do a hard hitting attack soon, time your #1 right, for an evade.
For Sword #1, if you need to position yourself differently (get behind an enemy, for example), just stop pressing #1 and position yourself, then continue attack, and/or use an offhand skill, that allows you to walk, while using it, like WH#4+5 and continue attacking normally, once in position.

Also, while the Swords “stickyness” is a disatvantage mostly in PvE, it can be a great advantage in PvP.

I’ll add on to wauwi’s post that sword/dagger is far and away our most mobile in-combat weapon. You can buy tons of time for CDs or healing to save you by bouncing all over the place with the 6 (!) movement skills.

Fluffball.8307:

with the 6 (!) movement skills.

Including Lightning Reflexes?

7 then!

Somewhere there is a youtube video of a guy running from the SE corner of EBG all the way back to his SW side of the map while being chased by a bunch of people. It’s pretty funny but I can’t seem to find it.

Edit: Here it is. It’s actually a guy who posts here I believe. The epic run start around 3:40. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AkX6q_kV-s

Also FrouFrou has some really funny videos of bouncing all over the kitten place with sword1.

“this video is not available – we’re sorry”.
:(

By the way, it might be due the lack of energy drink i had today, but i can only see 5 mobility skills with sword/dagger: #1 – leap (1), #2 back&SURPRISE (3), #3 roll (4), #4 boing (5).

Two of the autoattack skills move you. It’s sort of irrelevant how you count them, since you just go bouncing around by pressing 1 (untargeted.) They move you really far.

Anywho, I’ll take this post as an opportunity to post FrouFrou’s youtube channel. At around 4:00 in this video she gets in to trouble and does a ridiculously good job of staying alive through good use of the s/d. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtW2QcghZ8M&list=UUmjknpoCV0Yk86XVWVcTsvw

wauwi.9162:

Greatsword: AA Dodge, Cleave, Mobility, Burst, Leap, Block, Interrupt.

A lot of people forget that GS can cripple as well. 8 abilities on 5 skills is pretty nifty.

Solandri.9640:

wauwi.9162:

Greatsword: AA Dodge, Cleave, Mobility, Burst, Leap, Block, Interrupt.

A lot of people forget that GS can cripple as well. 8 abilities on 5 skills is pretty nifty.

I wouldn’t count it towards an advantage, especially not over Sword/Dagger, since it’s autoattack and offhand can cripple, too.
But yeah, i guess the whole package counts.

It is pretty nice, if you run LB/GS with Predator’s Onslaught.
That’s what i’m mainly using. (keep in mind, i mainly play PvE)
Opening with LB#5, then RF, switch, if cripple wears off GS #4, plus a canine or feline dealing chill, to close gaps during longer fights.

@Fluffball:
Nope, not working either. Must contain copyrighted music. I’m from germany and blocking such youtube videos is basically a hobby for german lawyers.

Ya both of the videos I posted have music in them.

Those sword skills are a lot of fun when messing with people, especially if you are running a regen build, but they can be very dangerous when fighting near a cliff.

Greatsword is an easy-to-use utility/defensive/burst weapon. Swoop and Counterattack can be used in many different situations. Burst damage comes from Maul (and Counterattack).

Sword+Dagger is a hard-to-use single-target weapon. High single-target damage, 3 evades, 2 poisons and 2 cripples. Dagger also has some bleed on it, so it fits better in condi builds. It’s good at outlasting an opponent and has a higher skill ceiling, mainly due to it’s unusual auto-attack chain and Hornet Sting + Monarch’s Leap combo.

I prefer Greatsword and that mostly for Swoop in WvW. Swoop is rarely off cooldown, especially outside of combat.

I thought sword has more survivability? With the leaps and evades compared to an auto evade and a 3 sec block and a leap

Mystogan.4157:

I thought sword has more survivability? With the leaps and evades compared to an auto evade and a 3 sec block and a leap

GS’s Swoop also evades and it’s #5 daze can interrupt enemy attacks.

However, it’s difficult to say, which has more survivability, because that’s very dependant on the situation, your playstyle and build.

GS has more suvivability in zerg battles by a mile, and I think the mobility of s/d really blows GS out of the water in small skirmishes. If you get focused, the only really good solution is to move. For 1v1 it’s probably pretty even.

Im not seeing the dps in sword. ive been using it with warhorn because fury is important in my build, but when i have it out it jst doesnt seem as beneficial to me as the gs, because i can get fury on gs attacks when traited and deal 5% more dmg.

Mystogan.4157:

Im not seeing the dps in sword. ive been using it with warhorn because fury is important in my build, but when i have it out it jst doesnt seem as beneficial to me as the gs, because i can get fury on gs attacks when traited and deal 5% more dmg.

Swords AA is slightly faster than the GS, stacks might on your pet (you forgot you had one, didn’t ‘ya :P) and perma cripples, which you’ll benefit alot from Predator’s Onslaught. (10% more player damage + 5% more pet damage)

Hmmmm Okay well here is my build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQJATRjEqUyaFL+rw1ag9gadAUAnNvOw7WcEHs4kD-TVCBABGt/we6Ca4QAcmSQsUm9p6PAcFAySpRAPAASBQxyI-w

With that said what in your opinion what would be better for this build? GS? or S/WH?

Things to note:
with 25 stacks of perception, i have 46% CR CH, and then with fury that bumps to 66% CR CH. also as you can see i have rage runes which adds duration and 5% dmg while under fury.

Is it intended for WvW? In that case, any decent player will one-hit your birds, because those are complete glass cannons. You want pets with CC, like a wolf (fear) or any other canine (knockdown).

You also have quite alot ferocity for a standard crit chance of 34% (54% if under fury), so you might think of a different set, like knight’s or soldier’s and maybe different runes.
Swap Steady Focus for something else, unless you rely on dealing the most damage with an opening strike rapid fire, which will fail hard, unless your enemy is braindead.
You will not be at full endurance for more than 90% of a fight’s duration.
Stacking sigils are not a very reliable source of better stats for WvW in my opinion.

Other than that, it will serve it’s purpose within a zerg, but you might get in some troubles here and there, if you solo-roam. Equip the “Sic’em!” skill, if you roam – it’s a must have and thiefs and certain mesmers will hate you forever.

And a full set of ascended, eh? GZ on all that money you have.

did you even read my question?

S/WH (preferably, S/D) and swap Read the Wind for Predator’s Onslaught.

Imo what is truly lacking is the absence of any condition removal.

Survival of the fittest for fury + condi cleanse and swap to S/D because it is way more mobile than a GS. The GS for me is a dueling weapon rather than a roaming one.

i switched out somethings i dont use the same trait set up i use 6/3/0/5/0

i use the sig condi remove and im currently using s/h becvaues of my fury needs and swift

edit: jst re read ur post.. i was confused because my original build had survival of the fittest with all survival skills lol